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Ralph Maughan

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is President of the Western Watersheds Project.

17 Responses to Wolves in hunters’ sights as Montana big-game season opens

This article dominated the front page of the Times and went on for about 2000 words. The hunt may actually produce some long term unintended benefits given this kind of media attention to the issue.

The habituation issue discussed on this blog before was mentioned. The featured hunter stated that the wolf he killed showed no fear and allowed him to walk up within shooting distance without moving. Now he says, well into the season, they seem to be getting smart. Bad news for wolf watchers, but then again, “Watching” was one form of the habituation which helped create the initial vulnerability.

I read the article also. I found it to pretty objective, getting different perspectives. The author also got a comment frome Caroline Sime, who reflected the State if Montana position, should relisting occur.

in this day and age, would you say curiosity or fear would be better, if I was a wolf living in this day and age, I would think fear would be a more sustaining trait than curiosity..in this day, wolves NEED to be afraid on humans..

I had some first hand experience with the Montana Elk hunt today. I drove along the dirt road from Gardiner to the CUT ranch. There is a narrow strip of forest service land between Yellowstone and the CUT land, which is used for hunter access. There were 14 vehicles in the access parking lot this morning. The hunters had killed 3 elk about 200 yards from the road and were carrying them out when I arrived.
About noon, a large male grizzly arrived to claim the two closest gut piles. He dragged one onto the tall sage and covered the other with dirt to protect it from the numerous Ravens and Magpies and spent the day lying on top of the dirt pile in plain sight about 200 yards from the road.
Numerous hunters and observers arrived off and on during the afternoon and watched the bear. Everyone was very
responsible and had a good time. The grizzly seemed totally unconcerned with anything but a few pesky ravens.
Sadly, the common theme of the people that watched the bear, was how pleasant it was to be able to watch a grizzly without the presence of over-bearing Yellowstone Park rangers. Everyone seemed to have a story of how they were mistreated in the park.
The hunters reported seeing a grizzly sow with 3 cubs and another smaller male grizzly. If you do the math, that means that tomorrow morning there will be numerous hunters walking in the dark toward the forest and passing by 3 gut piles and possibly 6 grizzlies. It seems like a recipe for disaster.

Larry said,”the bear dragged the gut pile”. If the elk were full quartered there is no way to “drag” the gut pile. There is just a pile of entrails and four knee to hoove leg ends left…unless it is a cow and then there is the head left..no neck.

And beings it is so close to the road why were these guys allowed to leave so much there as a bear attractant? In the back country Hunters legally could not leave a carcass within a quarter mile of a trail (no enforcement, however).

Finally, unless that bear was habituated to shots there would have been little chance he would have discovered that carcass within a few hours. A “normal gut pile” is cleaned up fast by ravens, eagles and coyotes. It is only chance encounter that a bear would be on a “gut pile” especially one out in the open.

What Larry describes very much shows what is wrong with bear management. It all could be prevented so easily. And this event didn’t even happen 32 miles from a road. It was near the mecca of bear management, within 10 miles of the NPS bear biologist office. If they can’t figure it out…or are too whimpidite to express these events to the rest of the Interagency Management team ..to give advice on how all this can be stopped…. then heads should roll.

Larry, are you kidding me? That indeed sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Why is this being managed in such a fashion?

The people that usually complain about “overbearing rangers” in the park are people who approach the bears on a consistent basis – usually to get the best picture possible. There’s a real lack of ethics. Many photographers feel they are “owed” a good shot after spending the money to drive and stay at the park. This is no different than the ranchers or mining comnpanies who feel they are “owed” a living at the expense of wildlife.

Bob Jackson you wrote: “What Larry describes very much shows what is wrong with bear management. ”

What? The bears are just doing what they are supposed to do, eat. The problem is HUNTER management not bear management.

If there is one common thread on this blog it is that an increase in hunter (and grazer) education and management is needed. Continuing to blame the bears and wolves for doing what comes natural is simply ignoring the obvious.

jduba,
Can’t tell if you are putting a bit of irony in your response or not. Management is what I said needs to change, the same as you say needs to be done. The habituation (and a habituated bear is a dead bear) with hunters leaving elk carcasses is no different than Yel. tourists throwing candy and potato chips out the window for former road side bears. The effect is the same.

I went back down this morning to see if the grizzly was still there. He was gone and the Montana Fish and Game had closed the area to all human access for today. I hope that will help, but there is still a chance of unwanted encounters between the bears and hunters in the coming days.
Bob- The elk (two cows and a small bull) were not quartered, they were gutted and carried out whole, complete with legs and head, to the road by several hunters on each animal. It was a big hunting party and an open smooth field. These guys carried them, one elk at a time. There was no dirt on the underside of the elk when they got them to the road. I was impressed by their determination.
What ever the grizzly did with the first pile, it stopped the birds from eating it. I think the bear was attracted by the sound of ravens and magpies. He had been coming each night to the CUT ranch to eat apples off the trees and was staying very close by. A sheriffs deputy that stopped for a few minutes said that biologists had estimated his weight at 600 lbs.
Mike- Not one of these people approached this bear all afternoon and there were no rangers or other law officers there. Everyone stayed next to the road and enjoyed viewing the bear from a safe distance. This Grizzly looked very capable of taking care of himself and no one went out to challenge him. There were no photos taken by anyone closer than two hundred yards from this bear.

“Bad news for wolf watchers, but then again, “Watching” was one form of the habituation which helped create the initial vulnerability.”

Habituation isn’t necessarily a bad thing–it is simply the extinction of a behavior after repeated exposure to a stimulus without consequences. Habituation to human presence is what makes Yellowstone NP such a huge attractant. Food conditioning (when animals learn to associate humans with food) is the problem (from a safety perspective).

Mike’s post shows why wolf hunting and wolf viewing are viewed as incompatible activities and why many wolf lovers find it so aggrevating that the whole of Idaho was opened to hunting.

GARDINER – Gallatin National Forest has implemented an emergency closure for the Beattie Gulch area north of Gardiner because grizzly bears are feeding on gut piles left by hunters.

Gardiner District Ranger Mary Maj says the bears are gathering near the trail and the trailhead, posing safety concerns.

The closure includes the area from the Beattie Gulch trailhead to the north where National Forest land borders private land. The closure extends southward to the Yellowstone National Park border and to the west about 2.5 miles.

Maj says the district understands the closure is an inconvenience for hunters and the area will be reopened as soon as it is safe to do so.

Two hunters were attacked in the Beattie Gulch area in the fall of 2007. The bear believed responsible was killed last fall.

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‎"At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour."